It’s always reassuring when the minions of the state do precisely the opposite of what they ought. Instead of protecting and defending the rights of we “mere citizens” they violate those rights instead.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained a copy of an FBI investigation manual which The Untouchables claim no need for a warrant to obtain email, private files and even private Facebook chats and Twitter direct messages.

The Justice Department's disinclination to seek warrants for private files stored on the servers of companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft continued even after a federal appeals court in 2010 ruled that warrantless access to e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. A previously unreleased version of an FBI manual (PDF), last updated two-and-a-half years after the appellate ruling, says field agents "may subpoena" e-mail records from companies "without running afoul of" the Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution makes it quite clear the FBI is, to be polite, mistaken.

New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content (you can see the documents here).

Seems the good little Minions of the State infesting the FBI don’t believe in listening to the Federal Appeals court which ruled quite clearly that warrantless searches of email violates the Fourth Amendment.

Never ones to bother with such pesky little details as “Constitutional Rights”, the FBI is pushing for a law to force communication companies to build in back doors for surveillance.

They’re reasoning for this?

Numerous communications companies refuse to hand over information to them without a warrant.